


taken for granite

by isloremipsumafterall



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 06:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2802140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isloremipsumafterall/pseuds/isloremipsumafterall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>for the prompt: five times Skye avoided Trip after the visit to the underground city (because he survived) and the one time she didn't</p>
            </blockquote>





	taken for granite

**One**

“Trip.”

He can hear the crack in Skye’s voice as she says his name but can’t move, it’s like all his bones have been welded together and frozen and he can’t even open his eyes to see her.

“Trip I’m so sorry.” Skye sobs.

His mind whirls in an attempt to catch up, only moments ago he had felt the suffocating effects of slate crawling up his skin, encasing him with the last image of Skye reaching out to him burned into his mind and then there were cracks of light.

“Oh god, Trip.”

It’s the last thing he hears before slipping into the dark.

When he wakes up it’s to Jemma Simmons face, wet with tears but smiling down at him.

“Welcome back, Trip, for a while there I wasn’t certain you’d make it back.”

“What happened?” His voice is rough, it feels like someone replaced that back of his throat with sandpaper.

Jemma hesitates but at his level stare starts talking, “Skye, it- in the chamber she…changed. The easiest way to explain it is she gathered some abilities to manipulate the earth with vibrations that stem from- nevermind, that, that isn’t important.”

He’d love to know how she figures that isn’t.

“She’ll have to explain it herself but as understand it when she saw you covered in stone that’s when she discovered it, shook the rock right off of you and saved your life.”

Trip can’t help the smile the edges onto his face, falling back against the pillow.

“That’s my girl.”

Jemma pats his shoulder gently but even that sends pain shooting down it and he hisses.

“There do seem to be some ramifications however, your skin is going to be sensitive for a long time. You need a lot of bed rest. Are you feeling up to any visitors? I’d rather they drop by now and then you can sleep, just everyone’s been worried and would like to see you.”

“May as well let them in.” He shifts up a bit, wincing at the roughness of the sheets as they slide against his skin but he doesn’t want Skye to see him lying on the bed; can at least act like everything’s all good for her.

What he doesn’t expect is that she isn’t one of the visitors at the door to see him.

~~

**Two**

Asking Coulson where Skye is gets him no answers, he’s only told that Skye’s been keeping herself at bay from people to control her powers.

If it wasn’t for the fact that when he wakes up in the morning he breathes in just the barest hints of orange tang, a smell he knows is from Skye’s shampoo, he wouldn’t think she was showing up at all.

Flakes of rock are still attached to various patches of skin but every morning he wakes up they’ve turned to dirt, something Jemma’s eyes narrow at as she hmm’s and ha’s over it, jotting down notes.

“You got any reason for this doc?”

“Well, I mean, I suspect…” Jemma tucks a piece of hair back and Trip raises an eyebrow.

“You suspect…”

“The breakdown of these is remarkably similar to the dirt that covered you when we found you in the cavern.”

“You mean after Skye performed her new power trick.” Trip frowns, mostly to himself, and for the thousandth time since he woke up wishes that Skye was there so at the very least he can see that she’s all right.

Jemma’s assured him that Skye’s fine, shaken up from everything, but physically fine.

Doesn’t stop him from worrying about her at all.

“Yes.” Jemma says. “Just like that.”

That night he leaves a note next to his bed.

_‘So is this your version of literally rocking my world?’_

The note’s gone in the morning but so is another patch of rock and he smiles, laughing quietly and hoping he can see her soon.

~~

**Three**

Trip wakes up grasping at air, hand stretched out and Skye’s name on his lips.

His skin feels like it’s burning, raw and blistered and all in his head because two weeks of Jemma’s care have smoothed it out at least minus where the rock patches still are.

There’s no rocks falling around him or Skye encased in her own tomb of stone in front of him, it’s just a white room with monitors beeping in time with his elevated heart rate.

With a harsh sigh his hand falls back down, the temptation to get up and go find Skye is starting to feel too strong.

He can’t keep dreaming about her without at least seeing her and knowing she’s okay, he can live with that, it’s why he went back for her in that cavern, why he’ll always go back for her.

They haven’t really talked about it but he’d been hoping he hadn’t been misreading the signals too, hadn’t placed too much hope in the bright smiles Skye gave him or the way she’d come find him after every mission, either to complain or drag him to the Xbox to blow off steam.

_“Tell me about your family,”_ She had asked him one day, collapsing on the bed next to him and curling into his side.

She’d just found out about her father and Trip could practically feel the hurt hovering around her.

So he’d talked, talked about his grandparents and their epic love story during the war, talked about his parents and his aunts and uncles and cousins and when Skye closed her eyes he started talking about the friends that had become family, of childhood friends mixed with SHIELD comrades.

_“Well, I got this one girl, she’s a fighter. Tough as can be but compassionate all the same. You should see her in a fight though, clever and never missing a chance to throw some comment in; beautiful as can be.”_

_“She sounds like more than family.”_ Skye commented, voice low as her breathing evened out and he can tell she’s about to fade off into sleep.

_“I’d like her to be.”_

The creak of the door breaks him from his thoughts, looking over to see a flash of dark brown hair before it’s gone and he’s left with his hand hovering in the air, reaching out at nothing.

“Skye…”

~~

**Four**

He’d like to say the first thing he does when Jemma tells him he can leave the bed is go to find Skye, but in truth his stomach grumbles loudly at him and reminds him that he hasn’t eaten anything solid in a while yet.

At one point the team tried cooking for him but it didn’t turn out great and Lance had proclaimed that this was exactly the reason Trip needed to get better faster and be the unofficial cook of the group.

When he gets to the kitchen he sets his goals on just making an omelette, not anything fancy.

The kitchen is as active as ever though, the rest of the team is up and about and at the very end of the table he spots Skye, sitting there nursing a cup of coffee and frowning at a report.

“You know if we hadn’t just been encased in stone I’d make the joke your face is going to stay that way if you aren’t careful but now I think it might just be asking for it.”

He keeps his voice light and it’s not even the first thing he wants to say to Skye, not even close, heart pounding in his chest with the insane amount of relief he feels flood through him that she looks okay.

Skye’s eyes flicker upwards and there’s the smallest hint of a smile on her lips that makes Trip grin easily.

Except then he winces, the patch of rock still stuck to his calf starts to feel warm and when he meets Skye’s eyes their wide and full of guilt.

“I’m sorry.” She blurts out, and then she’s gone.

He doesn’t feel so hungry anymore.

~~

**Five**

The whole building shakes during the day that Trip frowning at the last patch of rock on his chest that hasn’t fallen off yet.

Instantly he’s up and running for the door, calling out Skye’s name, visions of the worst thing happening and feeling like he’s running through that cavern again.

It doesn’t take that long to find her in the training room, May already there with her hand on Skye’s shoulder.

“Skye? Skye, you okay?” His breathing is heavy as he walks towards her.

“Trip?” She looks over at him, takes a step forward and then stops. “Trip you can’t be here.”

“No way am I leaving.” He frowns, “Not until I know you’re okay.”

Skye shoots him an annoyed look, one he rarely gets from her unless he’s stolen the last of the ice cream in the fridge, and shakes her head.

“I can’t see you right now.” She mutters and leaves.

When he goes to follow her May stops him.

“When she says that she can’t it doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to Trip, it just means that she can’t.”

“Why?” He demands, snapping because he’s finally had enough.

“It’s the powers. Skye told me that whenever she goes near you it’s like the rock from the cavern is calling to her and they act up; she can’t control herself. She’s worried she’ll hurt you.”

“Didn’t stop her from coming in at night.” He crossed his arms but mulled over May’s words.

May looked away, ghost of an amused smile on her face. “Why do you think that was?”

“Think what was?”

“That Skye couldn’t stay away. She tried Trip, but she misses you. When we found you two Skye wouldn’t let you go until you cried out in pain when her powers shook the rock on your skin again. She didn’t want to leave you.”

May walked by him, placing a hand on his shoulder and lightly squeezing before walking out.

He idly scratched at the last patch of rock on his chest under his shirt and sighed deeply.

~~

**…and the one time she didn’t**

Finding Skye laid out on the datacentre table was eerily similar to all those months ago before they stole a quinjet, right down to him walking into the room with two beers in hand.

Skye opened her eyes to look up at him and swung her legs over the table, looking ready to bolt.

“Just hold up a minute, something you should see first.”

He set down the beers next to her and in one fluid motion pulled off his shirt.

“See? No more cavern rock, fell off this morning and I’m all good. In complete working condition and everything so you can stop darting out of the room every time I come in.”

“Hey I was just worried about you is all, I mean, I could have hurt you Trip! You could have _died_ and I just…don’t do that to me.” Skye tapped him lightly in the thigh with her foot, stilling sitting on top of the table.

“Do what? Die? Cause I didn’t plan on it.”

“Come into a cavern that’s falling apart with some weird crystal thing in the centre looking for me.”

“Wasn’t about to leave you behind. Told you that.” He edged her with his elbow, “You’re my girl. Rocking my world and everything.”

Trip grinned at her and was pleased when Skye snorted before laughing too.

“You’re looking forward to making a lot of rock puns now aren’t you?”

“Like you haven’t been thinking of them in your spare time already?”

Skye’s eyes danced with amusement, “Maybe.”

“Uh hunh.” Trip grabbed one of the beers and took a sip. “So does this mean we don’t have to do the dancing around each other anymore?”

“Depends,” Skye leaned forward just a bit, the smell of oranges filled the air. “You going to kiss now or…”

He didn’t need any other incentive, the hand not holding the beer coming up to cup Skye’s face as he leaned in and kissed her, slow but deep like he’d always wanted.

“So you gonna show me these new powers of yours soon?”

Skye dragged him back down for a kiss.

“Maybe. Might have to earn it first.”

Despite the cockiness in her tone he could see the hesitation in her in.

“Hey,” Trip set down the beer so he could inch into Skye’s space, arms sliding around her side to bring her closer to him. “Promise you I’m okay, you’re not going to hurt me, we’re not down there anymore.”

Skye burrowed her face into his neck, warm air tickling his skin.

“Do I have to take off all my clothes to prove this? Cause I will.”

Skye laughed, pulling back a bit and a smirk on her lips, “Yeah, actually, I think that’s a good start.”

“Bed?”

“Bed.”

“So we can shake things up?”

“Was more thinking so I can never take you for granite.”

“Oh you’re proud of that one.” He teased.

“So we can get dirty?”

“Not as good.”

She rolled her eyes at him.

“Stop rating my puns and cement our relationship already.”

“Now you’re not even trying.”

Skye shut him up by kissing him again, something he gladly went with; all images of dusty caverns and Skye out of reach fading away to be replaced by the slide of warm skin under his fingertips and the taste of Skye on his tongue.


End file.
